by Anthony L. Audrieth
If you are going to use humor in your speaking, it is critical to know your audience. Find out all you can about their demographics, their interests, their political leanings, their favorite sports teams, everything. This will prevent you from putting your foot in your mouth by accident. It will also give you a good base from which to draw your materials. Service clubs will have histories that should be studied. They will have famous members that all members will know. They will have procedures, rituals and idiosyncrasies that can be fertile ground for humor. Are they hostile or friendly towards your position? Is your presentation to be given on an occasion special to the group. The more you know about your audience, the better you will serve their needs and be able to relate to their strongly held feelings. As a humorous speaker, you must be acutely aware of subject matter and the psychology of the audience. If you inject a bit of humor that the audience definitely does not receive "in fun", you are asking for trouble. A sensitivity to their background, interests, political leanings, mores and beliefs is vital if you are to entertain with humor without insulting your audience. As we proceed through this introduction to humor, I will provide you with a several rules; guidelines that are essential and must be followed.
An inappropriate reference can take them out of "in fun" instantly! The study of humor is complex and its components tightly intertwined, so we may well return to these key rules again and again, in different contexts and situations throughout this tape.
Another consideration is topical humor related to the group that you are speaking to. Find out all you can about the group. Investigate well known individuals, customs, history and special observances of the group. This falls into the "know your audience" category. Talk to the program chair, look over the organizations publications, talk to long-time members. In my home town, a long time member of Kiwanis was well known for his humorous quips that appeared in their newsletter. They were collected and published as a fund raiser. What made the collection so interesting was that many quips used the names of well known local business leaders and Kiwanis members.
As with any presentation, it must be said again, that humor must be used with good taste. As a professional you can not afford to make any blunders or use questionable humor. You'll need a general message that can be a substantial framework in which your humor can reside. The humor you use will be drawn from jokes (raw material adapted to your situation) and situational humor that presents a humorous picture. Dr. Jarvis is a master at this, using his incredible repertoire of humorous stories to support a strong message of hope, happiness and the need for responsibility. If he does tell a joke, he tells you he is going to do so. Your use of humor will depend in large part on the occasion. How you will use humor will be based on the nature of the event. An awards ceremony for example, with a serious purpose to recognize those who have accomplish great things, might not be well served by a humorous presentation of awards. A technical paper presentation might not seem a place for humor, but considering the potential for inducing sleep in the audience, might well be a place to inject some humor, as long as it fits in well and does not seem to be tagged on. In such a situation it may be difficult to find appropriate materials. One place to look is in the trade magazines and technical journals in your field. And don't just look in current issues. Go back several years to find "fresh" humor. Changing times may cause some items to lose their edge, but may also share a unique perspective as to the changing knowledge of the field.
To be continued on Part 6.
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